Scaffold-platform.



' PATBNTED 00T. 17, 1905. B. VAN` ETTEN..

SGAPPOLD PLATFORM. l APPLICATION FILED MAR.23, 1905.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ERNEST VAN ETTEN, OE POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK.

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Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 17, 1905.

Application ned March 23, i905. seria No. 251,676.

To all whom t mm] concern:

Be it known that I, ERNEST VAN ETTEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at No. 2 Gate street, Poughkeepsie, New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in scaffold-Platforms, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in scaffold-platforms; and the objects of the invention are to provide a simple, durable, and eiicient platform composed of a plurality of sections which may be made of varying lengths and readily assembled to provide any aggregate length desired and which may be as readily disconnected and piled in compact form when not in use.

With these and other objects in view the invention comprises the various details of construction and arrangement of parts hereinafter described, and particularly set forth in the appended claim.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a plan view of a platform consisting of two sections. Fig. 2 is a cross-section. Fig. 3 is an enlarged detailed plan view of one of the side members. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of Fig. 3, and Fig. 5 is a bottom view of Fig. 4.

Referring by reference characters to the drawings, the ordinals 6 and'a designate two sections, which, it will be understood, are representative of any number of sections and of any desired length, two being shown for convenience of illustration. These sections are each composed of two side members 7, of spruce or like planking, which are connected by cross-bars 8, upon which rest the platform-boards 9, of which four are shown for convenience. Attached to the bottom of each side bar 7 of one of the sections-as, for instance, 6-is a strap iron or steel member 10, which is securely held in place by bolts 11. The connection may be additionally strengthened by having integral side plates 10 extended up on each side of the bar 7 and secured by cross-bolts 10". At its forward end each strapiron 10 is furnished with a hook 12, which hooks into an eye on the slightly downwardlybent end 13 of a corresponding strap iron or steel member 13, secured in a similar manner to the under side of the abutting side bar 7 of the next section. I prefer to make the abutting ends of the side bars of the shape shown in Fig. 4, in which the joint curves upwardly and to the right from the hooked kconnection to a point slightly above the center of the cross-bar and then extends vertically upward, as indicated by the joint lines 14 and 15. Upon the top of each right-hand side bar is secured a strap iron or steel member 16, it preferably being held by the same bolts 11 which secured the bottom strap-iron, and the outer end of this strap-iron is pivotally connected thereto by a suitable hinge 17 and strap-iron member 18, designed to lie upon the top of the abutting side bar of the next section. The bolts 11 and 11b of the abutting side bar have their nuts countersunk in the side bar, as shown at 11 and 11, so as to permit the member 18 to be folded down at upon the top of the side bar and the ends of the bolts to pass through openings in the member 18. One or both of the bolts may be provided with thumb-screws 19, as shown, by which the hinged strap' members may be securely clamped in place.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that I provide an extremely simple form of scaffold-platform, which may be constructed in various lengths at a minimum cost and the sections of' which may be readily assembled to provide any desired aggregate length of scaffold and as readily disconnected when desired. v

Having thus described my invention, what I claim isW A scaffold-platform formed of sections, one of said sections having strap-irons secured to the under side thereof, provided with hooks and the other section having corresponding strap-irons provided with eyes to receive said hooks, bolts passing through the strap-iron and the section and extending above the surface of said section, the bolt-holes in said section being countersunk to receive the nuts on said bolts, the iirst named section having strap-irons secured to its upper side, hinged members on said strap-irons adapted to engage said bolts on the last-named section and nuts engaging said bolts above said hinged members, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aiiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ERNEST VAN ETTEN.

Witnesses:

JULIUs DARMs'rA'rTER, HENRY KRIEGER. 

